D.T.M.

Hey everyone, I have mentioned that i would be posting something in previous threads and here it is. Sorry if it is long.

In June of 2010 my then 1 year old lab Jayda came up limping after a long tennis ball fetch in a grassy park area. It was a hot day so she was getting tired anyway so I couldn't tell if she wanted to stop because of the heat or the limp. She limped on an off for a couple of days and then one afternoon I was getting bags of mulch out of the back of my truck. Weeks earlier Jayda had learned to jump into the back of my truck so she was thrilled to take the chance when she saw the tailgate down. She jumped and let out the loudest yelp I have ever heard. At this point she carried the leg off the ground and walked on 3 legs. After a few more days she was back to limping on and off but we took her to the vet anyway. He did all of the tests he could with out knocking her out and doing an x-ray and all of the mobility tests came up negative for symptoms of a torn ACL. He decided that she was about 10 lbs overwieght and ordered her to 2 weeks of no stairs, running or jumping. Months went on with a slight limp and she never liked to put her full pressure on the leg. I hunted her untill November that year and she loved it, no complaints from her. Then we noticed that her affected leg was not as muscular and that the limping went from on and off to all the time. Tests were still negative but we went ahead with the x-ray. The results were in, fully torn ACL. The recomended surgery, TPLO, cut the bone, rotate it and screw it back together and eliminate the need for an ACL. The recovery time was long, 12 weeks, and very specific and to top it off it was $2500, it wasn't fun to say the least.

I uploaded a picture of her the night after surgery. See the zipper down the front of her leg. Don't let the sedatives fool you, a day later this was a 1 year old lab.

We started 2011 of with a fresh dog, ready for anything. We made it 10 months with a healthy dog, then Saturday happened. She was fine all day, no problems at all. We got home and I let her out of the truck and she had a heavy limp...on the other leg this time. Now we have always heard that after one ACL tear there is a 90% chance the other will go at some point too. They tell me it could be because of 2 things, either its just genetics and thats why the first leg went. Or because durring the 5 months she went with a bum leg, the good leg took all of the stress. It has been two days and the positive sign is that she still puts full wieght on the leg, she just kind of stutter steps around every now and then. I am putting her on the DL for a week and we need to get the nails clipped because I am worried that may be contributing to some of it. I am hoping for the best again because those 12 weeks of recovery were some of the hardest weeks of my life. To top it off we have since had a baby so time and money are not as easy to come by as it was the last time.

Sorry if this story was a long one, I just felt like I needed to talk about it.

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chipper140

Thanks for sharing. Hope nothing is wrong with the other ACL. To bad misdiagnosis happens with dogs as well.

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